Glossary

Lens

Optical component that causes light to converge or diverge; by extension, an optical system.

Logarithmic scale

Scale in which an increment of 1 corresponds to a multiplicative factor (10 for log10, 2 for log2). For example, the EV (exposure values) scale is a logarithmic scale, doubling the exposure corresponds to EV+1.

Landscape & Architecture (use case)

Landscape & architecture photography commonly involves mounting the camera on a tripod and using the lowest possible ISO setting to minimize noise, thus maximizing image quality. In addition, photographers typically use short focal lenses, as they need to capture an entire structure or landscape. Read more about Lens Use Cases and Sensor Use Cases definitions.

Lateral chromatic aberration (LCA)

When a lens exhibits lateral chromatic aberration, the image of a perfectly sharp edge going from white to black shows color fringes (mostly purple, blue, or red) on the border of the edge. This is because simple lenses, like prisms, do not focus the different wavelengths of light on the same image plane. Read more about how LCA is defined, measured and scored.

Lens Use Case Scores

DxOMark reports lens performance Scores for five Use Cases: Travel & Family, Portrait & Studio, Sports & Wildlife, Reportage, and Landscape & Architecture. The Lens Use Case Scores are provided on a 5-star scale. When a lens does not have the focal length or aperture range for a given Use Case, it is reported as "not applicable".Read more about Lens Use Case Scores.

Landscape Score (based on Dynamic Range)

The Landscape Score is defined as the maximum Dynamic Range of the camera sensor and its unit is an exposure value (EV).

A value of 12 EV is excellent with differences below 0.5 EV usually not noticeable.

This score is named "Landscape" as contrasts are typically very high in landscape photography and it's therefore critical to have wide dyanamic range for such use.